Hello once again from Kiruna, Sweden!

We have been very busy here since the last post, for instance last Friday most of the students on the course joined in a ‘World Cup’ of Kirunaball. Kirunaball is a game which was created by some of the people during the course involving Football, Basketball, Netball and a couple of other sports. It certainly passes the time well and is a lot of fun, you can learn more about it on Facebook and Wikipedia.

At the weekend a few of us went on a trip out to the town of Narvik close by in Norway, unfortunately it seems that Summer is pretty much finished up here and the weather didn’t cooperate very well….we got a little soaked. It also seems to be getting colder and colder every morning, it certainly is odd to be wearing three layers of clothes in the middle of August!

This week we have also had the good fortune to be lectured by Gerhard Thiele, a former Astronaut and Mission Specialist on STS-99. He has been talking to us about our need to Explore Space and what that actually means and on Thursday will be talking about his experiences aboard the Space Shuttle.

If you want to have a look at the course from another angle, then check out this Blog written by one of the other students on the Course, Taylor. It touches on her trip to Norway as well as our day at Esrange, with some great photos to go with it!

More next time, and hopefully some photos!

Tom

Royal Gunpowder Mills' Rocket & Space Day

The Royal Gunpowder Mills have kindly requested a set of volunteers for their “Rocket and Space” event (see webpage) happening on the 10th & 11th of July.

The role will include aiding in the launch of rockets and general assistance in making the day fun and enjoyable for all.  Free entrance & camping is available for all volunteers and moreover it guarantees to be highly enjoyable!

If you would like to help out or would like further information, get in touch (web contact form).  The event is quite soon, so make yourself known as soon as possible! Discussion on this event can be found in the forum (see forum thread).

A big congratulation goes out to Ruth Pearson – the outgoing president of KCL’s Maxwell Society and a current UKSEDS member – on securing one of the newly founded UK Space Agency scholarships for the International Space University’s Space Studies Program (ISU SSP). We hope this is the first of many scholarships to come, and wish Ruth the very best over the next few weeks in Strasbourg.

UKSEDS in collaboration with  MyPocketQub and Taunton and District Amateur Radio Society are offering the opportunity to partake in a 2 Day Crash Course in Amateur Radio with a focus on communicating with amateur satellites.

Registration closes Sunday 13th June, 5.00pm.

View the Poster or click read more for more information.

We are still looking to fill the numbers required for Farnborough.

Volunteers will gain free entry to the event for the 23rd, a T-shirt & something a bit special to put on their CV.

Have a look at the original post and then get in touch using the ukseds.org website contact form (link in top right hand corner of home page).